You may recognise this comment from a conference feedback form: “The best part was the conversation over coffee.” A member came for the programme and left with an answer from someone they happened to meet in the corridor. An unconference gives that kind of exchange more room in the day.
Participants propose the sessions themselves, usually on the morning of the event. Your job is to prepare the rooms, time slots and process that turn those ideas into a workable programme. It still takes careful planning, just with a different emphasis. This guide explains when an unconference suits your community, how it relates to barcamps and open space, and how to run the day from the opening session to the conversations that follow.
What is an unconference?
An unconference is a participant driven event in which the attendees set the agenda on the day: anyone can propose a session, the group decides which proposals run, and the sessions fill a prepared grid of rooms and time slots. The aim is conversation between peers rather than presentation from a stage.
The authors of the much cited “Ten Simple Rules for Organizing an Unconference” (Budd et al., PLOS Computational Biology, 2015) describe it as a meeting “where the attendees decide on the agenda, discussion topics, workshops, and, often, even the time and venues”. Their shortest summary is the most useful one: unconferences “prioritize conversation over presentation”.
The idea is older than the word. Harrison Owen developed Open Space Technology in 1985. Tim O’Reilly’s invitation only Foo Camp followed in 2003, and in August 2005 a group of developers organised the first BarCamp in Palo Alto as its open counterpart, in less than a week. BarCamps have since been held in more than 350 cities (Wikipedia, BarCamp). Many professional communities now run their own versions. The Council of State Archivists, for example, hosts an annual unconference for records professionals, with themes guided by a working group and notes taken in every session.
Unconference, barcamp, open space: what is the difference?
As soon as you start planning one, you will meet three terms that are often used as synonyms, and in everyday use that is fine. For planning, the differences matter, because each one assumes a different amount of structure.
| Format | Who sets the agenda | How sessions are chosen | Typical session | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unconference | Participants, within a theme you set | Proposals on the day, often with a quick vote | 30 to 60 minutes, discussion led | The umbrella term for all of the formats below |
| Barcamp | Participants | Short pitch in the plenary, show of hands, card onto the session board | 45 minutes plus a change break | Open communities, regional and professional networks |
| Open space | Participants, around one guiding question | People post topics on a wall and gather around them | Open ended, guided by the “law of two feet” | Organisations working on one shared problem |
| Curated unconference | Organisers and participants together | Topics collected in advance, sorted by organisers | Planned but discussion led | Associations that need some predictability |
The last row is the one most organisers overlook. The PLOS authors describe a “curated unconference” in which topics are collected before the event and sorted transparently by the organisers. For an association with a board, sponsors and members who want to know what they are travelling to, that middle ground is often the right start.
In each format, participants shape the content. Choose the amount of advance structure that gives your community enough confidence to take part.
When an unconference is the right format, and when it is not
That question of the frame leads straight to the first decision: should this event be an unconference at all? The PLOS authors put it plainly in their first rule. Unconferences suit events whose goal is interaction and whose discussion groups can stay small. A traditional conference is better when the goal is formal learning for a large audience.
The strongest argument for the format comes from research on Edcamps, a free unconference format for teachers. In a survey of 769 participants, Carpenter and Linton (Teaching and Teacher Education, 2016) found overwhelmingly positive ratings, and the participants’ comments pointed to “how learning occurred and with whom” as the salient strength. For you, that means the value of an unconference lies less in any single session than in who ends up in the same room. Keep that in mind; it returns in the section on one to one meetings.
There is wider interest in this kind of exchange. In Forrester’s Q1 2026 State of B2B Events Survey of 400 event decision makers, two thirds of organisations said they planned more workshops, roundtables and structured networking. An unconference block offers one way to make room for those conversations.
The format works well when:
- Members know things: a professional association, a user community or a regional network whose participants are practitioners with experience to share.
- The questions are open: new regulation, a shift in the market, a technology nobody has fully figured out yet.
- The group returns: People who know the format often feel more comfortable proposing a session the next time.
It works poorly when the audience has nothing in common but a ticket, when you need accredited education content with fixed learning goals, or when sponsors have bought speaking slots. In those cases, keep the conference and add one unconference afternoon, or borrow a lighter participatory element from our list of networking event ideas, where small group formats need far less trust in the room.
How to run an unconference in six steps
Even with participants writing the programme, there is plenty to prepare. These six steps cover the work that helps them arrive with ideas, choose their sessions and get the most from the day.
Organiser run sheet
An unconference in six steps
- Weeks before Set the theme One theme or guiding question, broad enough for many sessions and narrow enough to attract the right people.
- Weeks before Build the grid Rooms times time slots, plus a plenary and at least one protected meeting window.
- Days before Seed the community Ask five to eight experienced members to bring a session idea each, so the board never starts empty.
- Morning Run the board session Short pitches, a show of hands, cards onto the grid, overlaps merged. Then the board is frozen.
- During the day Keep time and notes Sessions start and end on time, one note taker per session, everyone free to change rooms.
- After the day Close and follow up A short plenary, shared notes within 48 hours and the meetings that people asked for.
Build the grid before anyone arrives
Start with a simple grid: rooms across the top, time slots down the side. As a rule of thumb, allow one room for every 20 to 25 participants to keep discussions manageable. For 150 members, that means six to seven rooms. Three rounds of 45 minutes, each followed by a 15-minute change break, give you 18 to 21 possible sessions. That session length follows guidance from the German adult education portal wb-web.
Keep one space in the grid available for a late proposal or a topic that needs a follow-up. Mark lunch, plenary sessions and any dedicated meeting window too. Participants should be able to see at a glance when they are free to join a discussion or arrange a conversation.
The session board: how the pitch round works
The board session is the heart of the day, and it needs a firm hand. Picture the board at 09:40: 31 cards for 18 slots, a queue of people still waiting to pitch, and a room that is starting to lose patience. That is a good sign, and it only works if the process is clear.
Hand out cards at registration so people can write their proposal while they queue. In the plenary, each person pitches in about 30 seconds: the title, what they want to discuss, and whether they bring input or a question. A quick show of hands tells you whether there is interest. If there is, the card goes onto the grid, and the host places popular topics in the larger rooms. When proposals overlap, ask the two owners to merge their sessions on the spot; they usually agree. Once the board is full, freeze it. wb-web puts it in one line: a session plan, once set, is not changed any more. People need to trust the board to plan their day.
With more than 100 participants, skip the full round of personal introductions in the plenary. Ten seconds per person still adds up to 25 minutes before the first pitch.
Moderation: the host, the owners and the law of two feet
An unconference has fewer speakers but more roles. The host runs the opening, explains the rules and manages the board. A timekeeper rings the bell five minutes before each slot ends. Session owners open their session and make sure someone takes notes; they do not have to present. Participants follow Harrison Owen’s “law of two feet”: anyone who is neither learning nor contributing moves to another room, without apology.
Two moderation habits make a visible difference. First, the seeding step from the run sheet: organisers of the Dutch Magento community told Eventbrite that inviting experienced members who can always jump in with a topic takes most of the risk out of a first edition. Second, watch who pitches. If the board fills with the same voices as the main stage, the host can encourage quieter members directly. An open board does not open itself.
Combining an open board with planned one to one meetings
A useful session can leave people with more to discuss than the time allows. Two members from different regions might discover a shared problem during a session on succession planning. They want to compare notes, but the next round starts in 15 minutes and they are heading to different rooms. Without a way to arrange a follow-up, the conversation can easily end there.
Allow time for those follow-ups when you build the day. The Edcamp research highlights how much participants value the people they learn with. Three simple steps can help them continue a promising conversation:
- Reserve one meeting window in the grid, ideally after the second session slot, in which no sessions run.
- Let participants request short one to one meetings with people they met, with small tables or a lounge as the meeting point.
- Offer the same window to members who want to meet specific people from the participant list, even if they never shared a session.
For associations, a hybrid day often works best: a curated morning with the general assembly or one keynote, an open board after lunch, and a meeting window before the evening reception. How much of a day to give to each block, and why meeting windows belong on the grid before anything else, is the subject of our guide to conference agenda planning.
Converve can handle these follow-up meetings alongside your physical session board. Participants create a profile with their interests and role, then send meeting requests to people they want to talk with again. Accepted meetings appear in available slots in both participants’ agendas. You set the rules for suggested contacts. If your team also adds the finished session board to the programme, attendees can see their sessions and booked meetings together without overlaps.
After the day: notes, numbers and the next edition
Once the meeting window closes, the day ends where it started: in the plenary. This last round takes 20 minutes and does two jobs. Participants name one thing they will take home, and the host collects ideas for next year’s theme. The PLOS authors recommend handing that decision to the community, which also recruits the next group of volunteers.
Share the session notes within 48 hours, in one document or on the member platform. They help participants revisit an idea, find a useful link or catch up on a session they missed. To review the event and plan the next edition, track a few numbers:
- the share of participants who proposed or co-led a session,
- proposals against available slots,
- attendance per session, including the ones that stayed small,
- the number of one to one meetings booked in the meeting window,
- the rating in a short survey, using questions like the ones in our post event survey guide.
Read those figures alongside participants’ comments. They can reveal which topics need more time, where the room sizes worked and whether people had enough opportunity to follow up. That gives you something practical to improve for the next edition.
Frequently asked questions
What is an unconference?
An unconference is a participant driven event in which attendees set the agenda on the day. Anyone can propose a session, the group decides which proposals run, and sessions fill a prepared grid of rooms and time slots. The focus is on peer discussion rather than presentations (Budd et al., PLOS Computational Biology, 2015).
What is the difference between an unconference and a conference?
At a conference, organisers select speakers and topics months in advance and most sessions are presentations. At an unconference, participants propose and choose sessions on the day and most sessions are discussions. Organisers still plan the venue, rooms, time slots, moderation and catering.
Is a barcamp the same as an unconference?
A barcamp is one type of unconference. The first BarCamp took place in Palo Alto in August 2005 as an open alternative to the invitation only Foo Camp. Its typical method is a short pitch in the plenary, a show of hands and a session board with rooms and time slots.
How long is an unconference session?
Most unconferences use slots of 30 to 60 minutes. A common structure is 45 minutes of session plus 15 minutes to change rooms, which gives three to four slots in an afternoon and five to six in a full day.
How many people do you need for an unconference?
There is no fixed minimum. The board needs enough proposals to fill every slot, so a few dozen participants is a practical lower end. As a rule of thumb, plan one room per 20 to 25 participants. Larger unconferences work too: ScienceOnline Together ran with 500 participants.
What is the law of two feet?
The law of two feet comes from Harrison Owen’s Open Space Technology. It says that anyone who is neither learning nor contributing in a session should use their two feet and move to another one. It keeps sessions lively and removes the social pressure to stay.
Conclusion: plan the grid, not the content
An unconference works when people feel comfortable sharing what they know and asking what they do not. A clear theme, suitable rooms, a straightforward pitch process and an attentive host make that easier, especially for first-time participants. Your preparation gives their ideas somewhere to go.
Leave room for people to continue the conversations they start. To combine an open programme with planned one-to-one meetings at your next member event, get in touch with Converve. You can also explore how we support associations and their events and B2B matchmaking.
